


Squared

by svtseasons



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Party, Cute, Fluff, M/M, New York City, Romantic Comedy, Roommates, Seoksoon Day, Short One Shot, Winter, actor!seokmin, paralegal!soonyoung, seoksoon, soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 01:21:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21948955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/svtseasons/pseuds/svtseasons
Summary: Shy working millennial Soonyoung brings his hot musical actor roommate Seokmin to a work Christmas party.A short fluffy Christmas-y one-shot story based on Baek Yerin's song "Square", in honor of Seoksoon Day 2019.
Relationships: Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi/Lee Seokmin | DK
Comments: 4
Kudos: 82





	Squared

“The end of the year is a great time to have all your affairs squared away.”

Soonyoung spoke to the unassuming client, smiling. 

People were strange. Not a single thing changes with the holidays and the new year, save for changing the last two digits of the date stamp. And yet, the city was bustling with the noise of the holidays, people going outside in the freezing cold just for the hell of it, the expensive gifts and rich food to celebrate the birth of a child they did not believe in. Unfortunately for Soonyoung, the end of the year meant getting busier at work as people seeked legal advices about feuding family members, writing grandchildren out of the will for a spat that happened over Thanksgiving dinner, the feasibility of suing Burger King after slipping on a patch of ice in their parking lot. If December and Christmas was a season of joy for most, it was a promise of more profit at the firm that Soonyoung worked in. 

Beaming again at the old client leaving the office, Soonyoung felt exhausted. Just last year around this time, he was a carefree youth, dancing in the crowded streets of the city, soliciting money from tourists and shoppers. He missed the reckless days of being able to do what he loved the most. But then life happened. His parents sold their house, moving back to the motherland. His sister lived in sunny California with her husband, much too far for Soonyoung to mooch off of. And then his handsome boyfriend decided to cheat on him and kick him out of the apartment. 

Settling, learning to be complacent with what he had. That’s what Soonyoung’s year had been. 

Humming as he typed, Soonyoung was so focused on his work that he barely noticed his co-workers leaving one by one. 

“Kwon, aren’t you leaving soon?”

Soonyoung’s head snapped up at the sound. It was Annabelle, his fellow paralegal, sitting way across the room from him. 

“I’m almost done,” Soonyoung replied, “How’d everyone finish so early?”

“Uh, today is the office holiday party. You know that, right? Well, I guess not, judging from the shock on your face.”

Usually, there were always at least four or five people sticking around to work through dinner time, not leaving until past nine o’clock. However, the office was eerily empty as Annabelle, already packed in her neat little beige coat and brown messenger bag, stood at the dimly lit doorway. 

“Oh, no,” Soonyoung groaned, “where is that, again?”

“At Mr. Lee’s house on upper east. Are you going to have enough time to get ready? I can tell them you weren’t feeling too well.”

“I’ll run real quick to my apartment and change. Damn, I hope my roommate remembered to do the laundry yesterday.”

“How long are you planning to call him roommate, Kwon?” Annabelle giggled as she brushed her hand through her perfect Southern-belle coif, “You guys have done everything but the prenup at this point.”

Soonyoung blushed. “As far as I know, we’re just two guys living in an apartment together.” 

-

Rushing out into the cold streets of the city, Soonyoung weaved in and out of the impossibly slow crowds to get to the apartment that he shared with Seokmin. Seokmin, who was not his boyfriend, who was just a roommate he found on Craigslist, who was just a nice aspiring musical actor, who was just drunk one night and decided to kiss him. And then again. And then some more. 

“Hey, you’re finally here!”

Soonyoung was surprised to find Seokmin at the apartment, dressed nicely in a classy blue suit, his hair gelled up into a nice sweep, the classic actor’s face glowing without the usual dark circle underneath his eyes. In fact, Soonyoung nearly stopped at the sight, forgetting that there was a party he was late to. 

“Were you waiting for me?” Soonyoung asked softly, genuinely confused and terrified at the notion that he has forgotten not only one but two very important engagements tonight. 

“Of course. Isn’t your office holiday party tonight?”

“Oh, dude, did I ask you to come with me to that?” Soonyoung sighed in relief, “I completely forgot it was today, but thank god you remembered. Let me change real quick.”

“Ok, babe.” 

Soonyoung froze on the spot as Seokmin gripped him in a bear hug and nuzzled his hair.

Babe. That’s new. 

His thoughts kept getting caught in the threads of questions spinning out of his mind. As Soonyoung put on his pants, he tried to remember when he had mentioned this party to Seokmin. Brushing his hair, he wondered whether “babe” was a platonic term of endearment with the youngsters now. As his fingers fidgeted with the bowtie, he wondered if Seokmin even cared about him half as much as he cared about Seokmin. 

“Ready?”

“Ready. What was the address, again?”

Thankfully, Mr. Lee’s place was totally reachable by the 2 train. As they got to the front door of the nice brownstone, Soonyoung noticed that Seokmin’s face stiffened. Checking the house number again, Soonyoung rang the doorbell. 

“Whose house did you say this was?”

“My boss.”

The door swung open. 

“Hello, Mr. Kwon-- and Seokmin? What are you doing here?”

Wide-eyed, Soonyoung looked back and forth between the surprised face of his boss Mr. Lee and the half-grinning Seokmin.

“Hello, Uncle.”

-

Soonyoung was still bewildered as he followed Seokmin, who was expertly navigating through the foyer to get to the coat closet. Uncle? He knew that Seokmin’s last name was also Lee, but there were so many Lees in this city. Seokmin never mentioned that his uncle was a lawyer in the city. In fact, he’s never heard Seokmin speak of anyone in his family. 

“You can leave your sweater here, too. The house gets warm fast from the fireplace,” Seokmin spoke nonchalantly as he hung up Soonyoung’s coat, “The bathroom is this way. We can wash our hands before heading to the kitchen.”

As Soonyoung followed Seokmin into the kitchen, Annabelle spotted him and hailed them out. 

“Oh, Kwon, I didn’t know you were bringing a guest!” she said with here little Southern drawl, “Who might this be?”

“This is Seokmin, my… my roommate.”

Soonyoung blushed, watching Annabelle feign ignorance and batting her lashes so fast, he thought her wispy figure would fly away from the wind. 

“Seokmin, goodness! What are you doing here?”

An older, well-dressed woman approached them holding a tray of mushroom caps. 

“Hello, Aunt Nara. How are you?”

“Doing as well as I could at this age. How are you dear? And how’s your father?”

“Haha, very well,” Seokmin replied, flashing a smile. But Soonyoung felt Seokmin’s grip on his elbow tighten. 

“Mrs. Lee, how do you know Seokmin?” Annabelle asked, her face glowing with curiosity. 

Setting the tray out on the island, the older woman smiled. “Oh, Seokmin is Jae-- oh, dear, excuse me--Mr. Lee’s nephew! I didn’t expect to see Seokmin at this party, though. Did Jae invite you, dear?”

“No, actually,” Soonyoung squeaked quickly, “I had no idea that Seokmin was related to Mr. Lee. He just agreed to accompany me to my first work party.” 

To his great relief, Mrs. Lee cooed, “Oh, what a great coincidence! A small world indeed, isn’t it dear? Ah, I’m going to see if we’re running low on the cocktail punch. Please, kiddos, help yourself to as much food and drinks as you want, but save room for the meal! We’ll be sitting to eat soon. Can you believe Jae only wanted me to prepare 20 servings of everything?”

“But Mrs. Lee, there’s only 20 of us here,” piped in Annabelle, confused. 

“I know, that’s exactly what I’m saying. You need at least 50 servings of everything for a crowd this big! Men, they just don’t understand entertaining people.”

Soonyoung and Seokmin stood in a corner, sipping on the punch quietly. 

“You never told me you work for my uncle,” Seokmin finally broke the silence. 

“You never told me you had an uncle.”

“True.”

Soonyoung felt bad, but without knowing the reason why. He clearly caused some distress by having Seokmin accidentally reunite with his uncle. But, to be honest, Mr. Lee seemed like a pretty reasonable, nice person at work. Soonyoung took another sip of the cocktail. 

“I haven’t seen them in a few years,” Seokmin sighed, taking a sip of his drink as well. 

“Your uncle and aunt?”

“No,” the tall boy confessed, “my family.”

“Oh.” Soonyoung didn’t know what to say. Darting his eyes away, he took his hand to his mouth and started chewing on his nails out of a nervous habit. He’s only known Seokmin for almost a year, but he felt silly for not noticing that Seokmin never spoke about his family. Not even as they celebrated Thanksgiving together eating a cold turkey dinner Hungry Man from the microwave. 

They pulled away from the corner reluctantly as Mr. Kang, a junior associate at the firm, came to let them know that dinner was being served. Unfortunately, the only seats left over at the table were quite near the head of the table, where Mr. Lee was sitting. Soonyoung and Seokmin squeezed into the seats. 

Sensing the silent tension between Seokmin and Mr. Lee, Soonyoung felt his palms get sweatier by the minute as the other guests chattered on. He tried to focus on the tiny piece of meat on the beautiful bed of frisee in front of him. 

“So,” Mrs. Lee finally turned her attention to her silent nephew-in-law, “Seokmin, how has it been taking time off to do music before you go onto law school?”

Law school? Soonyoung wondered as he chewed slowly on the thready lettuce. Seokmin had never mentioned law school. 

“Musicals,” Seokmin said quietly through gritted teeth in a tone that Soonyoung doesn’t remember him ever having, “I’m going to be a musical actor, and I’m not planning to go to law school.”

Mr. Lee coughed loudly, clearly uncomfortable with where the conversation was going. But his wife was totally unphased by this new revelation. “Oh, goodness, I’m so sorry. Yes, musicals. That’s right. You were in that delightful production of “Company” when you were at Collegiate. I just always thought you’d follow your father’s footsteps.”

Father’s footsteps? Soonyoung’s eyes darted back to Seokmin, who had this cold empty look in his eyes. But Soonyoung could tell from the way that Seokmin was sawing carefully with the knife that Seokmin was trying to hold back his feelings. “Well,” he said cooly, “I guess I never will.”

“Seokmin, don’t be ridiculous,” Mr. Lee finally spoke, putting his napkin down, “Surely, you’re not thinking of doing this forever.”

“Why not?”

By this point, everyone around the room had noticed the volume of voice rising between the Lees. Only the smooth sound of Michael Buble’s voice over the speakers were in accordance with the holiday spirit. 

“Mmm, what delicious wine!” exclaimed Soonyoung as he hurriedly gulped down whatever beverage was in the flute in front of him. Soonyoung was desperate to resolve this situation he had unknowingly created today. In haste, he choked a little bit and began coughing uncontrollably.

“That’s sparkling apple cider, my dear,” said Mrs. Lee sympathetically as she offered Soonyoung a cloth napkin. 

Mr. Lee tutted, not even acknowledging Soonyoung’s attempt to diffuse the tension. “Seokmin, my boy, do you really think there’s a future in that? How far do you think you’ll get on this fluff dream of yours? Thousands of talented people show up in this city, but few make it to anything meaningful.”

It made Soonyoung upset to see Seokmin genuinely hurt by these remarks. He knew it was not in his place to say anything, but he piped up anyways. 

“Actually, I think Seokmin is quite talented as a performer. He’s got the potential to make it far. Just last month, he was the understudy for the role of Cunningham in “The Book of Mormon”. Isn’t that amazing?”

“No offense, Mr. Kwon,” Mr. Lee snorted, “but what qualifies you to make that judgement? Your flourishing career as a first-year paralegal?” This made Soonyoung’s face turn red, unable to retort back. He was right, of course. Who was he to be so confident about Seokmin, when he didn’t even know that Mr. Lee was Seokmin’s uncle until about an hour ago? 

But Seokmin rose quickly from the table in anger. “This is why I cut my ties with this family. You never see the worth in doing anything besides law. Well, Soonyoung was actually a very accomplished dancer himself,” he shouted, eyes blazing in fierce anger that was not there before, “so I will not have you speak down to my boyfriend like that. You never even consider that people might have different talents and passions that’ll lead them to something more than just a cushy six-figure life with a boring home and a boring job, and a boring family.”

Thinking about how hot angry Seokmin looked, Soonyoung did a double take at his words. “Boyfriend”? “My boyfriend”? But before he could dwell further on those words, Seokmin had snatched his wrist and was pulling him up. “C’mon, Soonyoung, Let’s go.” 

Rushing out of the house with the jacket, they sped down a whole block before Soonyoung stopped, bursting out in laughter. Seokmin stared at him for a few seconds, with an incredulous look, before breaking out in a wide grin himself. 

“What’s so funny, Soonyoung?”

“I don’t know. I just feel like laughing, okay?”

They laughed some more before calming down and taking a seat on a stranger’s stoop. Feeling the heat of Seokmin’s gaze on him, Soonyoung looked down at his lap and started fidgeting, picking away at his cuticles. 

“Stop that,” said Seokmin gently, putting his own long fingers on top of Soonyoung’s. The warmth was welcoming in the cold winter winds funneling through the narrow streets. Soonyoung relished the moment for a second, dreading the question he knows he must ask Seokmin. 

“So,” he finally opened his mouth, “why did you say that I was your boyfriend?”

It bothered Soonyoung. Seokmin may have said it to piss off his uncle or something. But Soonyoung never took their relationship lightly. He didn’t know if he could stand that, their time together being just a passing memory of youth, meaningless and futile. He was afraid of Seokmin looking at him in the eyes and confirming that Soonyoung was alone in his feelings. 

“Because you are.”

“Since when?” Soonyoung asked as he lifted his eyes to see Seokmin, And at that moment, looking at Seokmin’s earnest eyes, he knew. He knew that the intimate moments he felt in the last year were shared experiences. Looking at Seokmin’s eyes welling up in tears, devastated, Soonyoung felt the pain of sadness and a deep relief at the same time. “Seokmin, you never said--”

“You’re right. I… I assumed-”

“No, no, no. I want this. I want you. I just never knew you wanted me too.”

Soonyoung felt himself pulling Seokmin closer. Then, their lips crashed together, seeking, rejoicing, mingling in a mire of mixed emotions. Soonyoung felt tears stream down, but he couldn’t stop smiling. As they separated from the bliss, Soonyoung blushed in embarrassment. This wasn’t the first time they’ve kissed, but it felt like it. He felt silly but ecstatic about the way that Seokmin was caressing his hands, beaming widely. 

“You really didn’t think we were going out? All this time?” Seokmin looked much more relaxed as he teased Soonyoung

“Well, you-- we never said--,” Soonyoung sputtered, “I mean, what made you think we were?”

Seokmin rolled his eyes. “Last week, we bought a lazy susan that matches our dish set for the apartment we share. We spent both our birthdays and all the holidays together this year. I showed you all my moles so you can check me for any new ones. Soonyoung, we’ve done practically everything but adopt a beautiful baby together. How could I not think we were dating?” Hearing this, Soonyoung sank into his jacket, hoping that this could cover up his embarrassment forever. 

Seokmin was absolutely right. They were unashamedly dating each other. Soonyoung was just too dull to have realized it until now. 

“C’mon, babe,” Seokmin whispered dreamily into Soonyoung’s ears, his nose nuzzling into Soonyoung’s hair, “let’s go to bed.”

**Author's Note:**

> I really thought real hard about posting this fic because of Hoshi posting up those absolutely adorable photos of him in the grey fur jacket on the fancafe, and then DK had the audacity to comment "Cute.." underneath Hoshi's post. And THEN Hoshi saw the comment and said "Hahahaha A-ing". I tried to write a nice, soft, uwu fluff for Seoksoon, and then they went ahead and did things that were so much cuter than I could ever write up. 
> 
> Happy Seoksoon Day 2019, everyone.


End file.
